KIRKUS REVIEW

A mad bomber is on the loose, and forensic sculptor Eve Duncan
and her family are in the cross hairs.

A shadow falls over Eve and her husband Joe Quinn’s idyllic lakeside
cabin in Georgia when she receives a box containing a burned skull with a
bullet hole. The box also contains two mirrors: one intact and one shattered.
Her preternaturally empathetic and articulate 6-year-old son, Michael, gives
the skull a name: Sylvie. When Eve completes the reconstruction, the result is
a stunningly beautiful young woman. Meanwhile, at New York’s Carnegie Tech,
Eve’s ward, 18-year-old violin prodigy Cara Delaney, and her roommate, jaded
former child actress Darcy Nichols, are shocked when Cara is attacked in their
room one night. She’s injured but OK, and Jock Gavin, the spectacularly
attractive former assassin who is Cara's longtime bestie (although Cara yearns
for more—cue the sparks), is convinced the attack has something to do with
Cara’s possessive grandfather Mafia kingpin Sergai Kaskov. Cara cuts classes
short and heads off for a visit with Eve, inviting Darcy along. They arrive at
the cabin, and lo and behold, the reconstructed skull is a dead ringer for
Darcy. She’s shocked and explains that she has a hidden twin, Sylvia, a
physically and mentally disabled girl whose existence their mother insisted
Darcy keep secret so it wouldn't cloud her acting career. Could the skull
actually belong to Sylvia? Well, sure, anything can happen in Johansen’s
universe, and they discover that all clues point to former Irish Republican Army
member Rory Norwalk, a psycho who will stop at nothing to hit Eve right where
it hurts, including targeting her beloved Michael. When Norwalk’s handiwork
results in a horrific tragedy, Eve decides to take action and must ask for help
from someone as dangerous as he is. There’s actually a fun plot here, and Darcy
is a charming addition, but it’s bogged down by an overabundance of navel-gazing,
coincidence, and lots and lots of dialogue, much of it expository, in an
obvious effort to catch readers up on the characters’ complicated backgrounds.

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